Why the Long Face?

BY Lawrence Ferber

March 12 2009 12:00 AM ET

A horse-drawn carriage
ride through Manhattan's Central Park is a romantic lure and
memorable experience for many tourists (remember Will Smith's
gay carriage rendezvous inSix Degrees of Separation

?). But gay stand-up comedian Donny Moss found nothing loving
about it while working onBlinders

, an eye-opening documentary that exposes the brutally
inhumane, tragic, and downright dangerous side of NYC's
horse-drawn carriage industry.

Certain to educate and
sometimes appall with its accounts and images -- of horses
killed by run-ins with cars, forced to live in substandard
conditions, and one "retired" nag dispatched with a
bolt pistol --Blinders

is a compelling piece that asks, and answers, the question of
whether horses have a place in modern-day congested city
centers.

Moss put his comedy
career and a full-time job in public affairs for a
pharmaceutical company on hold and invested substantial savings
in the 50-minuteBlinders

, which was nominated for a 2008 Genesis Award (the awards
ceremony will be held March 28). It screens March 20 at NYC's
Village East Cinema and will air on the Documentary Channel
during March and April.

By phone from his
downtown apartment -- where he lives with his partner of five
years, Jim, and a 16-year-old Jack Russell terrier -- Moss
discussed his documentary, how Alec Baldwin got involved, the
lesbian politician allegedly stonewalling a bill to ban
horse-drawn carriages in New York, and a sexy new attraction
that's already taking their place.

Advocate.com:Have you always been a horse person?Donny Moss:

I have not. I always considered myself an animal person. Like
so many gay men and women I think of my dog as my child --
she's coughing in the background -- but I'm a New
Yorker, I didn't know anything about horses. I just saw all
these dispirited animals lined up along Central Park South and
read the news coverage of them getting hit by cars. The whole
thing made me uncomfortable and then I saw protesters one day
holding up signs and educating the public about the issue.
Something went off in my head telling me I want to look into
this further and maybe use this as a first stab for a
documentary.